What are Airbnb Essential Amenities and What Should You Provide Your Guests?
Show notes here:
Airbnb has essentials that you must provide your guest, but should you provide more? What amenities are absolute must haves?
- Think about what they need on their first few nights ,
- Roll of paper towels and a spare under the sink
- Spare toilet paper
- Plenty of garbage bags
- Laundry soap, laundry detergent
- Sheets for the dryer
- Dishwasher Pods
- Budget, Economy, Luxury – what is the difference in guest amenity and supply?
Supplying the guest for a great experience is actually very affordable and creates a surprise and delight element when you go above and beyond.
See Airbnb’s Essential Amenities Here —> https://www.airbnb.com/help/article/2343/what-are-essential-amenities
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Transcript
Intro : 00:01 Welcome to The Vacation Home Help Podcast, the only podcast dedicated to helping vacation rental owners self-manage their properties. Your host delivers short and sweet episodes with actionable advice, tips, and strategies to level up your hosting skills. Whether you are a complete beginner or have been in the vacation home rental business for a while, you are in the right place to get the tools you need to succeed. Here are your hosts, John Candelario and Tim Casey.
John Candelario: 00:32 So the question about what to supply your guest, Airbnb has their own essential list of items that you should provide every guest, like toilet paper, paper towel, some soap, that kind of stuff. But there’s more you should provide to really round out your experience. Right, Tim? Because if you just provide the essentials, they could look at you as you’re being very cheap. And imagine going to a rental and you get like one roll of toilet paper, and it’s really thin. So-
Tim Casey: 01:04 Right.
John Candelario: 01:05 … it’s the worst feeling, right? So, what do you provide your guests? How do you differentiate yourself? Because, I know you give a lot in your rental.
Tim Casey: 01:15 I think about this today very differently than I did a year ago. And again, I put myself in the shoes of the guest. They’re arriving six o’clock at night, they check into the house. The last thing they want to do is have to run to a store to purchase supplies because they’re not provided in the home. And when I thought about it that way, it really changed my point of view on what to provide.
Tim Casey: 01:44 So today, I provide a roll of paper towels and a spare under the sink. I provide spare toilet paper in every bathroom. I provide plenty of garbage bags. I provide laundry soap, laundry detergent, and the sheets for the dryer. I provide dishwasher pods. And the things I provide, I try to put myself in the shoes of, if I’m a guest, I don’t want to have to go out and buy all those things for a five day stay and waste all of that at the end of my stay.
Tim Casey: 02:20 So what I found is, having all of those things available to the guest, when they check in. Number one, it doesn’t cost as much money as you think it might. It really doesn’t. If you do the math, it’s very affordable. And number two, it creates that experience for the guest that has a surprise and delight element to it.
John Candelario: 02:41 Absolutely. And I’ve seen three different types of supply packs left out. You have the budget, which is what I talked about, about that toilet paper. Right? They only provide the bare bones and you feel like, you know the little soaps you get that you don’t even want to… They’re so rough-
Tim Casey: 02:56 Yep.
John Candelario: 02:56 … and they’re not good for your skin either. But that’s budget. And then you have the next level up and they provide more paper towel, more toilet paper, maybe some shampoo and conditioner, but it’s still very basic. You get trash bags. You also get, what else? For the kitchen, a sponge, some dish soap, and some laundry detergent. Those are essentials, and I think everyone needs to have those things. And that’s where people should start.
John Candelario: 03:21 Then you have the third, which is more like what you do and what other hosts do. They think of everything that a guest would need staying for a week. They even have Q-Tips and makeup remover. They have stuff for the kitchen, extra soap, dish pods. They’ll put even some coffee. They’ll put some essential condiments in there. And they include extra linens, they have extra towels. So, they’re really thinking about everything that someone would need so that they don’t have to run out to Target to go pick something up.
Tim Casey: 03:50 That’s right.
John Candelario: 03:51 And it’s not saying that everyone has to provide all of those things, because if your guest is paying $70 a night, which I don’t know where you could find a rental for that now, but yeah, you’re probably not going to want to spend 30 a night on supplies. But if you’re charging upwards of 600 a night, why wouldn’t you spend $30 a night on supplies? Because-
Tim Casey: 04:11 I think that’s right.
John Candelario: 04:12 … it depends on the price point, but remember to give people what they need.
Tim Casey: 04:16 I think that’s right. And again, I go back to, put yourself in the shoes of the guests. They check in, it’s the evening time, the last thing you want to do after a long day, is jump back in the car and go shopping. So, the more that you can provide to make that check-in experience even more delightful. If they have to go out and buy food, that’s fine. They expect to do that. But don’t provide them so little toilet paper that they can’t survive a day without running out to the store. So think about the guest, put yourself in the shoes of the guest, and provide those essentials to make their stay both convenient and very easy for them.
John Candelario: 04:56 I want to also touch on the hosts that think that the cleaner’s supposed to put everything, because there’re some hosts that say, “Hey, my cleaning company puts it.” But how do you know what quality of stuff they’re putting? How do you know if they’re putting it every time? You can’t put that responsibility on someone you’re outsourcing to, because they’re your guests. They’re people you’re taking care of, and you can’t just outsource the responsibility of hosting your guests to your maintenance guy, your co-host, your cleaner, whoever, because that’s your rental. So, it’s pretty smart to, whatever you want to supply them, to put them in little baggies, find a linen closet, lock it and store it so that it’s always there. It’s never forgotten, it’s always going to be left out where it needs to be.
John Candelario: 05:42 But don’t put that burden on your cohost or your housekeeper, because they may supply some things, and that means you don’t have to buy it. But even if they’re supplying some basics, you should try to exceed expectations. And say you’re cleaner leaves one toilet paper roll. It’s good they do provide that. But why not put some extra ones in your closet that can be left out so the guest has three or four-
Tim Casey: 06:06 That’s right.
John Candelario: 06:06 … per bathroom.
Tim Casey: 06:07 That’s right.
John Candelario: 06:07 So thinking about it in that way, you want to exceed expectations. Don’t just look at what Airbnb says you should leave, and leave that, because you’re not going to be different that way. But this is an opportunity that you could really show people how you’re different, how you care. And they’ll be thankful you left these items for them behind, because it will make them have a much smoother experience, if they come in and they don’t have to go to the store on their first night.
Tim Casey: 06:33 I think that’s right. And I go back to, put yourself in the shoes of the guest and try to make their stay as easy as it possibly can be. And it really doesn’t cost a lot of money. And that’d be… My key message today, John, would be, provide your guests with the supplies to make an enjoyable stay. And when you do the math, it doesn’t cost a lot of money, but it goes a long way. And it really creates a differentiated experience with the guest.
John Candelario: 07:03 Absolutely. And if anyone wants a definitive list of what we recommend, you could look in the show notes and we’ll include a little list of what essentials that we recommend that you leave at a minimum, and a few key ways you can wow your guests and provide a little bit more to make the experience even better.
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